Gianluca Vialli

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Gianluca Vialli
Personal information
Date of birth	July 9, 1964 (age 42)
Place of birth	Cremona, Italy
Nickname	Luca
Playing position	Striker
Senior clubs1
Years	Club	App (Gls)*
1980-84 1984-1992 1992-96 1996-00	Cremonese Sampdoria Juventus Chelsea	105 (23) 223 (85) 105 (38) 54 (21)
National team
1985-93	Italy	59 (16)
Teams managed
1998-00 2001-02	Chelsea (player-manager) Watford
1 Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. * Appearances (Goals)

Gianluca Vialli (born July 9, 1964 in Cremona) is a retired Italian football striker and manager.

Vialli's career started in 1980 when he signed for local club Cremonese. After scoring ten goals for the club in the 1983-84 season, he was transferred to Sampdoria. His time at Sampdoria proved successful, as the club won one Serie A championship (1990-91), one UEFA Cup Winners' Cup (1990) - where he scored both goals in the 2-0 win over Anderlecht in the final - and three Italian Cups (in 1985, 1988 and 1989).

While at Sampdoria, Vialli made his debut for Italy, and was included in the squad for the 1986 World Cup. He also played at Euro 88 (scoring the winner in Italy's 1-0 win over Spain) and was part of the squad which finished 3rd at Italia '90. Vialli was largely expected to have a huge impact on the tournament and started Italy's first two games. He set up a goal in Italy's opening game with Austria and in the following game he hit the post from a penalty against the USA. His poor form and injury saw him dropped in favour or Roberto Baggio and Toto Schillaci but he did make a surprise return in the semi final in place of Baggio. He was substituted in favour of Baggio in the match. In a recent interview with Irish radio station Newstalk Vialli claimed he had also been suffering with a chest infection in the early part of the tournament.

His swansong with Sampdoria came in the 1992 European Cup final, though his side were beaten by FC Barcelona. He moved to Juventus shortly afterwards for a world record fee of £12.5million.

Vialli won the UEFA Cup in his first season with Juventus, but was left out of the Italy squad for the 1994 World Cup following a dispute with coach Arrigo Sacchi, after which Vialli declared he would be supporting Brazil. He won another Scudetto and Italian Cup with Juve in 1995, scoring 16 goals during the season, but Juve were denied a treble after defeat in the UEFA Cup final to Parma, despite Vialli scoring a spectacular second leg goal. He ended his time in Torino by captaining the side to a Champions League final win over Ajax Amsterdam in 1996. Vialli moved to English Premiership club Chelsea on a free transfer in 1996.

Vialli joined Chelsea as part of manager Ruud Gullit's cosmopolitan rebuilding of the side, and won the FA Cup in his first season, including two goals in a spectacular 4-2 comeback over Liverpool in the fourth round, but a feud with Gullit saw him regularly left out of the starting line-up; in the final itself he was limited to a five-minute cameo appearance as a late substitute. During the 1997-98 season, he scored four goals in a win over Barnsley and a hat-trick against Norwegian side Tromsø in the Cup Winners' Cup, but still couldn't cement his place in the side.

Gullit was sacked in February 1998 and Vialli was appointed player-manager. He became one of the club's most successful managers, winning the Worthington Cup and Cup Winners' Cup just months after taking charge, and then the FA Cup in 2000. His team also finished third in the Premiership in 1998-99, just four points behind champions Manchester United in what was Chelsea's highest league finish since 1970. He made his final league appearance for the club against Derby County (With his final playing appearance against Instant Dict F.C. in Hong Kong), and ended his Chelsea career with 83 appearances and 40 goals.

The following season saw them reach the quarter-finals of the Champions League in their debut appearance, the highlight of which was a 3-1 victory over FC Barcelona, although they were eventually knocked out on aggregate by the same side. He was sacked five games into the 2000-01 season after an indifferent start and having fallen out with several players, including Gianfranco Zola, Didier Deschamps and Dan Petrescu.

He then took up an offer to manage First Division club Watford in 2001-02. Despite making wholesale and expensive changes to the playing and coaching staff, the Hertfordshire side finished an unimpressive 14th and Vialli was sacked after one year. Following this, he was drawn into a lengthy dispute with the club over the payment of the remainder of his contract.[1]

Today Vialli works as a TV football commentator for Sky Italia.

[edit] External links

• Gianluca Vialli management career stats at Soccerbase

Preceded by Ruud Gullit	Chelsea F.C. Manager 1998-2000	Succeeded by Claudio Ranieri
Preceded by Graham Taylor	Watford F.C. Manager 2001-2002	Succeeded by Ray Lewington

	Italy squad - 1990 FIFA World Cup Third Place
1 Zenga | 2 Baresi | 3 Bergomi | 4 De Agostini | 5 Ferrara | 6 Ferri | 7 Maldini | 8 Vierchowod | 9 Ancelotti | 10 Berti | 11 De Napoli | 12 Tacconi | 13 Giannini | 14 Marocchi | 15 Baggio | 16 Carnevale | 17 Donadoni | 18 Mancini | 19 Schillaci | 20 Serena | 21 Vialli | 22 Pagliuca | Coach: Vicini

	Italy squad - 1986 FIFA World Cup
1 Galli | 2 Bergomi | 3 Cabrini | 4 Collovati | 5 Nela | 6 Scirea | 7 Tricella | 8 Vierchowod | 9 Ancelotti | 10 Bagni | 11 Baresi | 12 Tancredi | 13 De Napoli | 14 Di Gennaro | 15 Tardelli | 16 Conti | 17 Vialli | 18 Altobelli | 19 Galderisi | 20 Rossi | 21 Serena | 22 Zenga | Coach: Bearzot